Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Will's 1st Birthday!

On Friday, Will turned one! I can't believe that a year ago, I actually gave birth to a baby - amazing.  And he truly is such a happy & wonderful baby.


My mom asked Will if he wanted some chocolate, & he repeated "you want some chocolate?" (with a baby slur). It was hilarious - he was totally mimicking her.


Will w/ nana

Because Scott had school on Friday, we spent that day preparing for Will's party & celebrated with friends & family on Saturday instead.


Gail used to spend a lot of her free time decorating cakes, & taught me how to frost cakes/cupcakes, make decorating bags out of parchment paper, use the decorating tips, & manipulate the frosting on the cupcake with toothpicks & my fingers (I cleaned my hands thoroughly before doing all of this).
 Will kept crawling all over my legs while I knelt on the floor to decorate the cake (no the cake was not on the floor with me, I just needed to get down lower to see what I was doing, & my back needed a break from bending over the cakes for hours).

I wanted a Pirate Monkey & Lion theme, so I used the book, Hello, Cupcake! to learn how to decorate the lions & monkeys, & then added some pirate details.


Lions: w/ mini oreo eye patches


Monkeys with fruit-roll-up bandanas & frosting earings:


The yellow banana runts on the edge of the cake are 'crossbones': I had so much fun decorating these cakes - I never thought I was capable of doing something like this because I don't usually have the patience for it. It turned out so cute, & I'm really glad I could do something extra to make Will's first birthday treats & cake special.


The kids loved them, & even the adults were impressed (it's not normal for my dad or brothers to compliment the way cakes look, but they kept going back & looking at them to say how great they looked. And my niece has already requested princess cupcakes for her birthday). Aren't they fun? And they were so much easier to do than I expected.
We loved having so many people over to support Will, both our family & friends.


My sister(-in-law) Amy w/ Lily, & Timmy


Zach (also belongs to Steven & Amy)


Dennis & Scott


Lily & Carson were both fond of the cell phone.


Leslie & Sara


Ethan & Curtis


Will was all about the hugs at his party - he practically tackled Lily to give her a hug, & wouldn't leave Wes alone until he gave him a hug too (he's never tried hugging other kids before, so it was so cute when he started hugging his cousins).


Little cutie!


Parading down to the pinata.


My brother, Brad, bought fake-hair headbands for Lily & Sammie. I was so glad to catch Sammie pulling Lily's 'hair.' It's so typical of her - she's been doing this to Lily since she was a baby. I love these girls!


Will favored kicking the pinata to using a bat.






Zach was the one to finally break the pirate open & free the loot.




Lily, my dad, & Wes sitting in the grass while Dennis was all over the picture-taking.


Our little family.


Steven & Scott w/ Will: It really pays off to prepare good food for parties. I never plan enough ahead to do this, but with my mom's & Gail's help, I was able to put together a great spread: bread w/ spinach dip, bowtie pasta salad, a veggie plate, grapes, strawberries, little tuna & turkey sandwiches cut up for the kids - it was so good.


Timmy & Drew - they're such great friends & cousins.


Marching over to his cake.


He wasn't quite sure what to think about everyone singing "Happy Birthday."


He also looked kind of overwhelmed by the cake. What the heck was it for?


Will probably ate 3 bites of cake (& only because we put it in his mouth for him) & spent the rest of the time destroying it.


After cake, we all went on a mini hike on Mt. Diablo. It was a longer 'walk' than some expected, especially having to carry kids, but it was so beautiful. I wish I'd gotten some pictures - the leaves were changing to orange & yellow, the oak tree branches were arching over the trail, the moss on the rocks was such a bright, beautiful green, & we even saw deer down below the trail jumping across the small "stream" - if you can really call it a stream. It felt so good to get out & enjoy such a beautiful hike w/ everyone.


Some of our friends from back home: Tiffani, Leslie & Ben


Our little pirate: Happy Birthday sweet boy - We love you so much & are so grateful that you came to us!

14 comments:

  1. Happy Birthday William!!! great job on the cupcakes liz!!! they look awesome. sorry we missed the party...we wish we could have been there:) hope to see you guys soon.

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  2. Happy 1st Birthday William! We're sorry we missed it too:( It looks like William had a great first birthday...you did an amazing job! We sure miss you guys and we hope to see you soon!

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  3. Liz those cupcakes are freakin' crazy! I love them! Happy Birthday to William.

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  4. He is adorable! I can't believe he is 1 already. Happy Birthday, and I need to hire you to make some cupcakes! Too bad we live on opposite ends of California!

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  5. Happy birthday Will! Looks like you guys had a great party! It looks like he really got into his cake too. I love the book. Aren'there at ton of ideas for cupcakes that you just can't wait to try out?

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  6. Happy Birthday Will! Those cupcakes are pirate birthday cake turned out so cute! Great job!

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  7. First of all, I love the new header! Will is getting so big and it was fun to see him tear his cake apart! I raved about the cupcakes to Andrew so I am excited to show him. See you soon!

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  8. SO Sorry we missed the party.... Stupid Flu gets in the way of everything!!!! Poor Carter.... oh well!!! William is darling and all my love!!! The pictures are so cute!!! Happy Birthday!

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  9. you've got mad cake-decorating skills, liz! nice :) cute pics...can't believe he's 1!

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  10. I can't believe that Will is already 1. That went by so fast. I love love the cupcakes. I want those for Max's b-day. They are so cute

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  11. Wow, time definately flies. I can't believe he's already one!!! I love the way you decorated the cupcakes. You are so talented! We miss you guys and hope to see you guys soon!

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  12. what a perfect first birthday! looks like you had a lot of fun. and like everyone else, i like the cake/cupcakes! that is a good book, with lots of fun ideas!
    it was good to see you today, you look really good with your new hair & will is just as adorable as ever!

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  13. OH MY GOSH!!! what the HECK!!!! i had NO CLUE you changed up your blog address so i was wondering where you've been since you're such a good blogger... come to find out that I"M the idiot here!!! i'm so sorry!!! I am really behind, but i'll catch up!!! Will is the CUTEST KID EVER!!! and WOW, he's ONE!! where did the time go??? he's adorable and I love love love the pictures (ps. hello PHOTOGRAPHER!! you are amazing) and you look fabulous, love the hair, love the clothes... love YOU!!!!!

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  14. What a fun party! I sooooooooo wish I could have been there with everyone! The cakes are darling - great job!

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